Improvement in grain-cutters



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

lILESSIJ REEDER, OF ALTON, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN GRAIN-CUTTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 2,919, dated January 20, 1843.

Illinois, have invented an Improvement in the Manner of Constructing a Machine for Outting Small Grain, by means of whichimprovement it is made to raise and cut such grain as may have fallen as well as that which is standing; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The intention of this machine is to cut the heads of grain from the straw as it stands in the n'eld and to leave the latter standing-a inode of harvesting which isQ particularly applicable in some ot' the NVestern States, where the fields of wheat and other grain are of such extent thatitisfreqnentlyimpossibleto gather and house the produce in the ordinary mode -oi' procedure with the sickle or the cradle.

The cutting of the grain is to be effected by means of a cutting wheel or reel, which revolves and carries knives or cutters which cut the grain by their action against a stationary bar or cutter ot' steel, between which and the revolving knives the separation is eii'ected. To this cutting I have added a lifting apparatus, for the purpose ot' raising such grain as may have fallen and of causing it to be acted on bythe cutters.

In the accompanyingdrawng I have represented the whole apparatus i'n perspective in the form in which I have essayed it.

A A is a cart, which is to receive the heads of grain as they are cut oft'.

B B is a revolving reel, which is to receive motion from one of'the wheels C ot' the cart, which motion may be communicated therefrom by a chain-band, as shown in the drawing, or by toothed gearing, as may be preferred.

I) D are the revolving knives or cutters, which make a part of the reel, and which are so placed as to form an obtuse angle in their middles, asshown D. These knives operate against a stationary bar or cutter, @,Awhich extends along the fore edge of the bottom of the cart in that portion thereof in which the reel runs. The oblique position given to the revolving knives causes them to cut with ease. rIhese knives I have formed of .square bars of the requisite strength, which manner of constructing them is much preferable to the mak- |ing them of iiattened plates, as the heads ot grain pass the more readily in between them, and are carried by them against the station ary knife.

The fore end ot' the cart may be elevated o1 I depressed at pleasure t0 adapt it to the height of the grain to be cut. The method of doing this which I prefer isthat shown in the draw ings, where Eis a screw, that may be turned by means of a winch under the control of the dri-ver. This screw passes through a nut in the cross-bar F', which connects the shafts I F, the inner ends of which shafts work on joint-pins within the cart. 1

My improvement in raising the fallen grain isas follows: l

G G are lingers, which may be made ofv thin rods of iron, the outer ends of which are pointed and their inner ends made fast to a plate, H H, which is hung `by joint-pins b immediately below the stationary cutter a. This plate is to bemoved by a lever, I, or by any analogous contrivance under the command of the driver, who is thereby enabled to elevate or depress the fingers G Gr at pleasure, and to adapt them to the'situation of the fallen grain.

to raise the fallen grain, and they have also the effect to render the cutting ofthe heads of the standing grain the more certain by preknives he dull.

I do not claim the use of stationary horizontal fingers for conducting the heads 'of grain to the cutters, these having been previously used, but limit my claim to such as are hung by joint-pins, in the manner set forth.V

Having thus fully described the nature of myimprovementin the apparatus for harvestand desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

'lhe combining ot' the system of fingers G G used for cutting the heads of the grain from the straw, the said combined apparatus being constructed and operating substantially as herein fully set forth.

JESSE REEDER.

Witnesses: v Taos. l?. JONES, EDWIN L. BRUNDAGE.

These fingers always tend by theirinclination venting its being movedlaterally should the ing small grain, what I claim therein as new,

with the revolving and the stationary' cutters 

